Tragic Girl
by Tormentor488
Summary: Post Things Change. A series that will examine Beast Boy and Raven navigating their feelings for their old comrade Terra. And each other.
1. The Ghost in the Prom Dress

Prom Night.

Not something Beast Boy would ever have for himself. At least, never in any normal capacity. Below the gym balcony, where he stood, he looked on at the sea the students. All of whom were unaware of his presence.

The normal teenagers. Enjoying the fruits of the peace both he and his friends fought for daily. Among them was a girl who used to fight beside him. She was dancing with a boy Beast Boy didn't recognize. He was tall. With dark, styled hair. Broad shouldered. Annoyingly attractive. A dull and bitter flame gnawed at Beast Boy's stomach.

How much would a shallow guy like that know about Terra? And even if he were to know about the girl's finer details, could he genuinely appreciate them?

More sickeningly, Terra seemed to be enjoying herself with this phony. Her smile was dazzling under the shifting party lights. It evoked the image of the dirt-smudged face he'd originally fallen for. Her golden hair swayed hypnotically with every movement, sometimes brushing the back of the pink dress she was adorned in.

Her image was as cruel and teasing to Beast Boy as it was captivating. It was perhaps prettiest he'd ever seen her, and yet...

She was painfully out of place. A specter among the living. Hamfistedly inserted into lives of people who didn't even know her. It was a perversion of Beast Boy's reality. Terra was a Teen Titan, not some average teenager.

_What are you doing down there?_ He so badly wanted to ask her. This life was a lie. The expensive dress, her earrings, the foundation and makeup on her face, it wasn't Terra. Her phantom memory was betrayed by everything he was witnessing. Unbeknownst to everyone dancing below him.

Invariably, her words came back to him, as they had for several months,

"Things change."

He thought he could accept that.

But Terra remembered. He knew she did, it had been obvious in their limited interactions. She had a past, and she _remembered_ it. Worse, she was comfortable with forgetting it. And worse still, now it seemed she was comfortable forgetting Beast Boy, too.

Why was he so easy for her to discard?

She was burying everything along with the demons. Not just himself and the Titans, but any possibility of himself with her. Was it really necessary Beast Boy be totally walled-off from her life? The double-standard infuriated him. He was expected to grow and move on from the experience, while Terra herself was willfully ignoring it, in the hopes of never confronting it again. Allowing herself to freeze, unchanging, in this falsehood of a life. A girl in a photograph.

Things change?

Ha.

Maybe things had changed for her superficially.

When she was with friends. And at school. Her surface-level life was a stark contrast to her previous life. And Beast Boy didn't know himself, but wondered: In her darkest, quietest moments, did she remember her old self? Was she haunted and consumed by the pain and mistakes she'd made, and the lives of her friends she'd nearly taken?

Perhaps there was no atonement, in her mind, but the one she'd given herself. This sham boyfriend. The monotonous school life. The completely average but safe and sterile facade, totally divorced from her previous life.

Her _real_ life.

The scrawny teen wanted more than anything to rip her from this sea of hormone-addled drones, and out of the arms of this fake boyfriend of hers. Him and his infuriatingly perfect features and stylish suit. Beast Boy could call out to her over the deafening music. His voice might even reach her, beyond the veil of this falseness. True Terra may awaken, and set all of the terrible artificial wrongness right. And maybe he could be spared of this too-beautiful imposter wearing the corpse of the girl he loved. Which was being puppeteered in the wrong play. She belonged in Titans tower, with the team. Out of the excessive makeup.

And with him.

Despite his rage, and disillusionment, Beast Boy did nothing more than continue to observe. He honored her wishes since that day in school. They hadn't spoken since she parted with that dissatisfying epitaph.

Here lies Garfield and Terra's Relationship: _"Things Change." _

Yes, he honored her wishes.

Superficially.

As superficially as Terra lived her pale shell of a life. Where she was totally unable to confront the reality of her past, and the very tangible ghosts that resided there.

Beast Boy had been following her for months now. Always out of view. Sometimes in the shadows. Like some unimportant background character in a play, watching the main event unfold from the sidelines. Desperate for a lead role in her life, while she didn't even want to look at him.

It had been at least an hour since he'd arrived at the dance. His knees were starting to ache, and his eyes were hot and dry, but tears threatened to cut them. Maybe they'd come if he continued to spy on this ordinary girl in her plastic life.

Numbly, he noted she was a graceful dancer. Beast Boy wouldn't have ever known. He wondered if she'd learned it after abandoning him. Maybe it was always inside her. Along with so many beautiful things he'd never discover.

"Thanks, Terra."

She didn't hear him, or much at all, over the blaring music. Still, Terra glanced over her dance partner's shoulder. Her unfocused stare drifted up toward the gymnasium's balcony.

No one was there.

Beast Boy didn't return to the tower, instead choosing to wander to the pier.

Twilight was upon Jump City. The horizon was smudged in accents of pinks and purples, slowly bleeding out to its harsh and final black.

The pier was a loud place. Almost as deafening as the prom had been just twenty minutes ago. But Beast Boy didn't really _hear _it. All those carnies fruitlessly beckoning him to play their games to "win fabulous prizes!" Interminable electronic beeps and whistles from the games, and the triumphant cries of girls getting stuffed animals from their boyfriends also assaulted him. It felt like some discordant song he couldn't appreciate the melody in.

The lights were equally harsh. Flashing bright reds and blues and greens which popped out at him violently before winking out of existence. The entire atmosphere was aggressive fakery. Meaningless surface-level eye candy. Another lie. He felt like he was getting a migraine.

Terra liked it here the few times he brought her. He'd liked it too, at the time. Presently, he couldn't feel more disgusted with it if he tried. And maybe that was the entire point of being there. In his sick, despondent state, he didn't belong anywhere else.

Beast Boy trudged over to one of the guard rails to look out at the ocean. No one paid any mind. Not to him, or the sunset. This moment would be lost to time, like so many others. His pain, this mourning, the dying pinks and purples of the sky, all forgotten. It didn't escape him that he, too, would eventually forget this pain one day. A notion that did little to comfort his blackening mind.

"Thought I might find you here." It wasn't unusual she did, so he wasn't taken by surprise to hear her voice.

"Hey, Raven," he offered with a glum smile. Beast Boy didn't want to seem down, but he wasn't able to muster up anything more enthusiastic.

"How are you feeling?" She leaned on the guard rail beside him, looking out at the sunset instead of directly at him. A gesture he was thankful for.

"You kiddin'? A guy like me? I have to beat the ladies off with a stick. I can only ever feel one way, and that way is great, baby." He tried to mask the pain as he often did. Better to be the clown than wallow in your real feelings and risk driving everyone away. Something he was doing far too often these past few months. Raven had become his improvisational therapist ever since things with Terra fell through. These little talks were commonplace now.

"Okay, now tell me how you really feel."

"Horrible," he sighed. He didn't want to admit to her where he'd been, and what he'd been doing for months now. All the while fearing he may just cave in and spill regardless.

"Do you want to talk about it?"

"That's nice and everything, but... Hey, wouldn't you rather I win you another giant stuffed chicken, Raven? You're a bird. It's a bird. Birds of a feather, as they say." He wiggled his eyebrows suggestively. Jokes seemed preferable to continually dragging her into these discussions, and into the darkness that came with them. Not that it satisfied him to wall her out, almost as Terra was doing to him, but he felt unworthy of help or compassion. After all, the one person he offered himself to without restraint cast him aside with no effort at all.

The empath wasn't so easily swayed. Undoubtedly sensing his true emotions.

"I don't think you should think you should continue to mask your feelings behind humor." Perceptive as always. Though it didn't take a genius to see through his antics.

"You're right, Rae... I don't know. I feel like I can't let this go. I keep revisiting places like this. Seeing the past in my mind, and feeling it inside. Processing it, and still, I'm not getting anywhere. It's like I _want _to hurt."

Raven considered this a moment before speaking. "Everyone grieves differently. This wound is still relatively fresh. A few months. It's not so unusual you're still mourning her."

"It may not be unusual, but that sure doesn't make it suck any less." He groaned.

"What drew you here this time? Talk it out with me." As he feared, he had a feeling she might go there. In the few months since he'd begun stalking Terra, he hadn't said a word about it to Raven. How could he? What would she think?

"What do you think Terra's new life is like?" The questions were turned back around on her. Beast Boy already had his depressing answer, but was curious as to what she thought.

"Depends. Outwardly? I'd bet she has friends. She probably likes school over hanging out in the desert trying to survive. Maybe she even..." She stopped herself and measured Beast Boy's expression before choosing her next words. "Well, could be dating, as much as it might hurt to hear."

"It does," he admitted, envisioning that awful sight at the prom.

"But on the inside," Raven went on. "I doubt she's as well as she might appear on the surface. She suffered a trauma. She refuses to confront it. No matter what her present life is like, she'll always be haunted by that trauma until she tackles it head-on."

"What if she's already got a boyfriend?" Beast Boy asked sulkily, growing increasing hyper-focused on that image in his mind. Terra dancing with Mr. Popularity. The sickly flame was burning in his stomach again.

"A relationship may soothe some of her misery, but I don't think it matters, ultimately. Whatever internal issues she has can't be fixed strictly by the external."

"I don't agree. In fact, I don't think she feels anything at all. Not for the past, or anyone in it." The sudden, dark shift in Beast Boy's attitude didn't escape Raven's attention. A nerve had been struck, but she didn't know where, or why.

"Okay, let's follow that thread. Where are these feelings of resentment coming from?"

"I saw her. With her stupid prom date. And probably the guy who's her lousy boyfriend now." The worrying suddenly felt so pointless. If Raven would find out, she'd find out. What did any of it matter? "Things change", after all.

"Can I ask how it is you stumbled across them?" The question felt like a hopeless formality to Beast Boy. Knowing she already had an inkling, but not wanting to believe her suspicion.

"I didn't "stumble" across them," he smirked. "I knew the prom was happening. I went to see if I'd find her. And I did. Her, and something so much worse. I'm such an idiot!" He pounded the guard rail with both fists.

Raven didn't say anything, but she was visibly wounded. Even he could make that much out. However, her reasons were more complicated than he knew in that moment.

"What were you hoping to find?" Her voice was a low and soft rasp.

"I wasn't hoping to find anything. It's more like I was hoping I wouldn't find what I did."

"Whoever she's with shouldn't make a difference to you anymore-"

"Well, it does!" He snapped.

"Clearly it does." Raven turned her attention back to the dying light of the sunset, then away from Beast Boy entirely, toward the darkening city. Which was beginning to light with its own synthetic phoniness."I can't say I blame you for feeling hurt. But I also won't pretend I'm thrilled to hear this." And as quickly as it roared to life, his rage died at witnessing her pain. Leaving him with the charred black stain of regret.

"I'm sorry, Raven," he sighed. "You must think I'm the biggest idiot in the world right now." For a long nauseating moment, she said nothing. And he worried maybe she really did feel that way. Until, mercifully, she broke the silence.

"Yeah," she admitted. "But not for the reasons you might think."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"Seriously?" She chuckled- Beast Boy was already scared- and turned back toward him with a knowing grin on her face, which was another rarity for her. Raven couldn't help herself in this instance. Beast Boy could be astoundingly perceptive and completely clueless all at once. It was difficult for her to stay mad at him. "Nothing. Nothing at all, _Garfield_."

"I _hate _when you use my name." There was truth in what he said, but he couldn't resist returning her smile. More than anything, he was relieved she seemed to be okay. The last thing he wanted was to disappoint Raven, especially after the past few months.

"And I love that you hate it... You gonna be okay, Dum-Dum?" Everything had been going black, and stars were inviting themselves in. Only the faint glow of the pier attractions illuminated the two. Raven's face was becoming a muddled apparition in the darkness. Blinking lights in the distance painted her in odd strobing colors and cast harsh, shifting shadows which changed the faces he saw.

For one fleeting instant, Terra was there.


	2. Heart-Shaped Scar

_"Why can't things just go back to the way they were?" _He'd asked her that day._ "You used to be so happy." _

_ "Things were never the way you remember." _

Maybe that thorn was the reason he regularly held and stared at the heart-shaped box. The gift ungiven. A physical object was simple and unchanging. It couldn't lie to him. His memories could be traitorous and deceptive, and he'd thought Terra was happy, but that wasn't the case.

Beast Boy was sitting on Terra's – former- bed, her room still unsealed. For that matter, it was largely untouched. He knew his friends kept it that way only for him, out of respect for his grieving. Though they were grateful for Terra's sacrifice, it didn't change the fact she'd tried to murder them all.

Some of them multiple times.

Beast Boy himself being one of her potential victims. Irrespective of her reasoning, she _did _try to kill him. So, what prompted this longing? Terra had moved on. At least, as far as he could tell. On the only level he was allowed to observe her from. When would his own mourning end? What did he have to do to find that same peace of mind?

"Mind if I come in?" It was Raven. Fresh mug of tea in hand.

"Please do." Raven had a habit of showing up when he was at his lowest. For the first few months, he did anything to avoid her. Not because he disliked her, or that he didn't appreciate her efforts to cheer him up. Rather, the pain was too fresh. Too personal. It didn't feel right to share the gory details while he was still freshly wounded. Now that time had passed, he was valuing and enjoying Raven's company more.

"What's on the grieving agenda today?" The box on his lap was plain as day, but she was good at playing the game and asking questions.

"You remember this old thing? Still don't have the heart to get rid of it. Heh. Get it? Heart? Because of the shape? Am I your favorite comedian, or what?"

"Groan." Raven made a face before sipping her tea. All the times he'd seen her drink it, it occurred to Beast Boy he'd never tried it himself, or even asked what it tasted like.

"How is that?"

"How's what?"

"Your tea, I mean. What's it taste like?"

"Why ask when you can taste it yourself?" She extended the mug to him, a gesture he didn't expect.

"You aren't afraid I'm gonna give you cooties or something?" Raven seemed a little—only a little—annoyed by his question.

"It's only weird if you make it weird. Drink out of this side if you don't want to touch where my lips were." She rotated the cup, which was still held up to him expectantly.

"No, no. I'm fine with it. I was just making sure you were, is all. Were you gonna lemme grab it, or...?"

"Open your mouth." As she said it, the corner of her own curled mischievously.

"What? Like you're gonna-"

"Yes." Raven seemed so confident saying it. It was innocuous, but it felt intimate in a way he wasn't prepared for. He could feel his green face burning red.

"Okay, Doc. Ahhhh." She put the mug to his lips and tilted it. And then watched his face contort with great interest, before Beast Boy showed off his best spit-take.

"Yo! I thought you drank tea! Isn't tea supposed to be, I dunno. Tasty? No wonder you're so moody. And bitter."

"Oh, Garfield. The best medicine is always bitter." She sipped again through her smile, amused by his reaction.

"Bleh... Can't really argue with that." Beast Boy wasn't thinking of the tea, but instead Raven. She could be bitter. Downright sour if he really got on her bad side. But she was also the one treating him and mending the brokenness inside him. Bitter could soothe in its own way. His face was burning again.

"So... Robin and Cyborg are getting eager to close this place off. Just thought you should be aware. Nobody's going to push you, but..."

"I know, I know." This news didn't surprise him. Nor did it anger or upset him. The room was a constant and dark reminder of something most of them were content to forget. And they'd all given Beast Boy plenty of time to grieve and sulk over Terra. Never mind that they didn't go out of their way to pursue or try to punish her for her crimes. He wasn't always sure if that was solely for his sake, but he appreciated it regardless.

"Raven, I wonder: What do you think of Terra? All this time it's been me spilling my guts about her, but I've never once bothered to ask you how you've felt about this." The question was like a prickly blanket. It nearly made Raven shiver.

"It's complicated... To put it mildly. She betrayed us. She stomped all over our feelings, and nearly did the unthinkable, to every single one of us. However, she was also manipulated by Slade, and she tried to sacrifice herself to save us. At best, I'd be indifferent. In reality, I'm grateful to her while also strongly disliking her."

"Does it bother you that I can't let her go?"

"I think you're more than capable of letting her go. You're lingering on her, but I suspect it'll pass. I know it will, rather."

"That doesn't really answer my question."

"You're right, it doesn't." She sipped her tea. Beast Boy wasn't satisfied to leave things at that. He wanted to talk to her about the tension between Raven and himself. To see just where the relationship stood, or what it could blossom into.

Beyond the ugly Terra entanglement.

But addressing his affection for Raven was its own task. He'd always had feelings for her. And before Terra appeared, he thought things might finally come to a head. He didn't know what the result might be, but he had been getting dangerously close to Raven. The danger lying in the possible rejection. Maybe even the inevitable rejection. Raven was his friend. And Beast Boy wasn't so self-loathing he'd believe Raven didn't like him. But how far could "like" carry him?

"Rae, I just wanted to say that I appreciate you listening to all this stuff." It took her aback, but only a little.

"Always." She was the Ice Queen, but her smile never failed to warm him. "What made you choose that for her?" It seemed they were finally ready to talk about the scar in his lap.

"You know, that's the funny thing. I don't even remember. It feels shallow and stupid now. I just thought it was pretty. Some dopey and in-your-face box like this. Terra was pretty. The box seemed pretty. I didn't put much thought into it. I only remember the way I felt when I saw it."

"What did it make you feel?"

"Happy..." He felt nervous saying it, worrying she might ridicule him for sounding so idiotic. Beast Boy sometimes felt so small and ignorant next to Raven.

"Then I don't think it's shallow. Or stupid. The way it made you feel was your reason. And happiness is enough on its own."

"Really? You're not just saying that?"

"I'm only a _half_-demon, so that only makes me _half _evil." Raven seemed to smile more these days. Maybe it was for his benefit. Whatever her reasons, he hoped it was a trend that would continue.

"I don't think there's a speck of evil in you." He knew what she said was a joke, but he was all too familiar with jokes containing seeds of truth, and didn't want to leave any doubt in her mind where she stood in his.

"Thanks, Gar." He didn't mind her—only her -using his name when she wasn't teasing him for it.

"Always." He echoed her with his goofy grin. Then his eyes were back on his lap, expression falling. "What should I do with this thing? Trash it?"

"I don't think you need to do anything that dramatic." A hint of a smile before she sipped some tea, contemplating her next words. "Why don't you keep it until you're ready to give your heart to the right person?"

"How will I know who that is?" He nervously scraped the box's lid with his thumb.

"How did you know she was?"

"She wasn't... You know how it turned out." The blackness was bleeding back in. Staining his thoughts.

"Maybe she wasn't," she sensed his bitterness. "But don't let her jade you... It's okay to grow up. Just don't turn into a cynic."

"It seems to work pretty well for you." He offered dryly, but she wasn't amused.

"I'm serious. I like..." She traced the lip of her mug, feeling just a little anxious. "That you wear your heart on your sleeve. That you're honest. I don't want you to lose that. You lost her. I did, too. Don't let her take the best parts of you." Regret washed over him. Raw and honest. He kept it inside.

_"I'm such a jerk..."_

"I'll try, Raven."

She wrapped an arm around him in a wordless half-hug, resting her head on his shoulder.

They sat contently together in silence.


	3. Changing Seasons

Effort was a lofty thought. The idea of change was comforting. Actual change? No one wanted that.

Especially not Beast Boy.

He wasn't willing to admit his weakness to Raven. Though he had been making more concerted efforts to retain that optimism she confessed to adoring. He even allowed himself to believe, one day, he'd overcome this longing. The unfulfillable longing for warm Summer days with Terra, showered in soft golden light.

But this wasn't that day.

The sky was dark, but the streetlights hadn't yet flickered to life. The small suburban cove shrouded by trees was desolate, save Beast Boy himself. The warm glow of Terra's house starkly contrasted the icy blue he was frozen in.

Terra was with her family. Her ignorant adoptive family. But the resentment he'd felt at the prom was no longer there. Watching her laugh made him ill. Despondent. Frantic. But his surface was calm. His placid expression not betraying his inner-turmoil.

The Titans were her family first.

He couldn't fathom the reason for her cruelty. Her motives for taunting him with this facade eluded him... But that was just it, she wasn't doing anything but living her life. And maybe that's what hurt Beast Boy the most. This wasn't some diabolical scheme to torture him. That would imply she still cared, even if her intentions were malicious. No, it was darker than that.

Terra didn't think of him at all.

Indifference was crueler than hatred. Cold, like the frigid winter air around is body. Snow hadn't yet touched the earth. Stuck in the stasis between seasons. Time could only move forward in the Spring. He hadn't yet thawed from the Winter in his heart, leaving him forgotten to Terra in months past.

And there she was. Spring herself, all in that window. Right on the horizon. On the cusp of his reality, but forever parallel to it. But the seasons couldn't reverse. Raven was the Fall. Autumn leaves falling like the curtain on life itself. Like a guillotine cleaving the past and every possibility that used to lay within. An inevitability Beast Boy wasn't sure he was ready to accept. Committing to Raven meant moving on, and changing the seasons. He was reluctant to forsake the memories of the warm breeze, the deep blues, and the radiant sun gold.

But Raven cared, and he knew his noncommittal behavior was unfair to her. Yet here he stood, on the haunt yet again. Then it occurred to him. Terra wasn't the grim bearer of his past failures, nor was she making efforts to reappear in his life. Terra wasn't a persistent, depressing apparition.

He was.

All the while, there was someone waiting at home for him.

No one noticed him out on the sidewalk. And if they did, no one said anything. They all had obligations and lives and warmth and love in their private nests. Tucked away quietly outside the city. Why would anyone care he's there? Especially the girl framed in the window, bathed in heavenly light.

Eternal Spring.

He took one final look at her, smiled, and disappeared into the Fall.

Beast Boy's communicator had gone silent. One of those telltale signs he was off paying respects to the living dead. Raven knew better than to agonize over it, but adhering to that wisdom was another story.

She wondered if Beast Boy truly mourned Terra, or merely the unfulfilled potential she represented. And the simpler past she was framed by. That seemed logical enough to Raven. And even still, that dissenting, small, nagging voice gnawed,

"He loves her."

That was possible. It was also equally depressing and infuriating. However, Raven didn't begrudge him for any of his feelings. If he loved Terra, it couldn't be helped. There was no point in being upset with him over something he couldn't control. Yet that undercurrent of indignant entitlement lingered. She'd been mending him for months. Consoling him, and allowing him to confide in her, and indulging him where and when it was appropriate.

How could Terra still be so important to him?

But that was ridiculous. Love isn't measured in action, or duty, not in sympathy, or assistance. Love is owed to no one. The heart is fickle, and it does what it wants. She needed to control her emotions.

"But still, but still, but still," the dumb animal hindbrain bleated, rebelling against her, unsatisfied with logic and craving that reciprocation of emotion. Raven sighed, draping her legs over the side of her bed. Looking at her dead communicator and feeling her heart leap as if it may light up once she focused on it.

Nothing.

Frustrated, she tossed it behind her, where it landed on the bed. She surveyed her unlit room in the dimming evening light.

"_This is why he doesn't like you,"_ she thought to herself. "_Look around you. Why would he? You're darkness personified. A demon. You're death. Of course he wants her." _Pointless and stupid. She knew better. Self-loathing wouldn't serve any purpose. It wouldn't get her anywhere, nor would it draw him closer to her. There was no catharsis in it. It wasn't the romantic notion some people made it out to be. It was self-serving and egotistical.

An obsession. A cruder, grimmer version of whatever Beast Boy was doing while he fawned over the phantom image of Terra.

She'd tried to call him two or three times before giving up. She didn't want to seem pathetic, more than anything. The communicator, still at her back, mocked her, because it wouldn't- the familiar little electronic tune played. Raven snapped around just fast enough to see the little light blink. She snatched it after a moment of reluctance.

"Rae?" Beast Boy's voice was tinny through the device.

"What's up?" She feigned ignorance, knowing full well what was up.

"I saw you tried to reach me, I'm sorry about that. I was-" Here came the excuses. She braced herself internally. "- spying. On Terra." He admitted. It took her by surprise. So much so, she didn't have a response ready. Before she could make an attempt, he went on.

"But I don't want to hide that from you anymore. I don't want to hide anything. The only reason I ever did was... Because I felt disgusting. Weak. What I've done is desperate, and ugly. I don't want you to see that side of me. But that's dishonest of me. And not fair to you."

"You don't owe me anything." She was starting to feel remorseful for her agitation only moments ago.

"I know. But maybe I do owe it to us- I mean. Whatever we are. Friends-"

"-More than friends." Raven couldn't resist interrupting him to say it. She was tired of tap-dancing around it, and suspected he was, too. True, they weren't officially an item, but it was plain to see whatever they had become surpassed mere friendship.

"Definitely more... I've been afraid to talk to you about that. I think we've both been afraid."

"It's scary," she admitted. "It's not difficult for me to see why you'd gravitate toward Terra. She was familiar in a way we haven't had the chance to be."

"She and I never..."

"I know. You weren't together... But she was patient with you. Less cold. And I want to be that for you. Some of it's me being set in my ways. Some of it's fear. But you deserve better, Garfield. I want to be that for you."

"All I want you to be is you." The blackness of her room felt heavy and devastating against his words. She was terrified he didn't care, and that his obsession with Terra was rebelling against the harsh blackness of herself. Raven had slowly been convincing herself she was just some grim final destination he was reluctant to accept, or some kind of cold and dead consolation prize. It took so little to dispel her doubt of his true feelings for her. A candle in the dark was all she needed.

"Will you be home soon?" Her voice was heavy, and her eyes were misty.

"I will be."

"I'll be waiting for you," Raven sighed shakily, relieved.

"You won't have to wait much longer, Raven."

_ When the light faded, Beast Boy and Raven found comfort in each other. Terra was left only with her dreams. Where she saw green pastures, filled with endless animals. _


End file.
